


Home

by fuckingsherlock



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: AU, Friendship, Gen, Nature, One Shot, Teenagers, self realisation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-05-14
Packaged: 2018-06-08 08:00:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6846154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fuckingsherlock/pseuds/fuckingsherlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Buies Creek,' Link thinks bitterly. 'What a joke.'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

Link knows it's futile.

  
He knows that the divorce didn't technically mean Mum and him had to leave the country; move to another state.  
He knows that it didn't really mean that Dad loved him any less.  
He really doesn't want to move.

 _'Home,'_ he thinks, _'Home is where the skies are grey and no one socializes with me unless it's life or death.'_

  
The sun is blazing. He can feel his skin crawl at the heat through the car windows. The white leather of the seats stick to his sweaty arms.

A small town where everyone is interconnected.  
It's too different; he feels sick.

  
He locks himself up in his room for a solid forty-eight hours, missing his first day of school.  
And the next.  
And the next.

The moment Mum steps out to get some groceries for the second time that month, Link bolts out of the haven of his room and out of the confining house.  
She doesn't stop him.

  
He finds himself to, wandering aimlessly in the complex architecture of boastful shrubbery green.  
_'Buies Creek,'_  Link thinks bitterly. _'What a joke.'_

 

He doesn't know why he goes back to the forest the next day; but he does.  
And the next.  
And the next.

Two months pass by and somewhere in that period of time, Link agrees to give school a shot.  
_He_ was too different--he goes back to school again.

He likes school.

 

Mum asks Link why he's been so agreeable lately, and he responds by pretending to be insulted. Brushing off her suspicion with a laugh as he takes off into the brisk October air, excited to see the winter trees breathe and thrive around him.

He takes refuge in the home nature nests out just for him, he takes refuge from nothing remarkable.

He just needs to sometimes.

 

It is December when he finally decides to explore beyond _his_ shelter of the forest--a canopy of winter trees filter the sunlight, glittering and gleaming through the icicles.  
Something gold catches his eye. It stands out vividly against the stark white blanket of frost frozen lakes.

He follows the gold, in hopes of an adventure. Maybe even treasure.

  
His adventure comes in the form of a boy not much older than him, who perches on a large boulder; tossing frozen rocks at the lake in attempt to shatter it's glassy, frost coating.  
His giant frame shifts curiously when he hears Link's hesitant gait.  
  


"What's a kid like you doing 'round a forest at a time like this?" His golden adventure asks in that cracking baritone voice of his.  
  
"I could say the same thing," Link laughs, fear of interaction gone. Non-existent. "I spotted your blonde hair a mile away."

"I sure don't hear that every day."

They sit there for the next few hours, chatting away their Christmas.

  
It's too different, but Link's not complaining.

  
They chat away their New Years, then their new year, and Link comes to realize that home is where times are difficult and things are different.

Where the sun shines as blindingly as his friend's joyous smiles. Where silent, companionable exchanges go on for hours in the safety of their forest. 

Where he has his golden treasure.

That's Home.


End file.
